Autistic leadership, authentic leadership…

There are many things that have become clearer to me over the last 2–3 years as I have discovered autism and how this applies to me on a practical basis.

Perhaps one of the most significant learnings has been how I can function so well in a professional environment, in work, my career, yet have difficulties in my personal life. Whenever I tell people I am autistic, one of the first responses can be incredulity, especially people who know me and know what I do in my professional career.

However, for me it has answered so many questions — how I can have such a spiky profile, why I often use my work to escape into or hide behind and why I can often struggle with work/ life balance. The greatest upside, however has been to be able to distinguish between the two areas of my life and understand where, how and why challenges exist, but also therefore devise new strategies for coping/ managing.

This blog post is an attempt to highlight the differences, yet show how it is possible to be autistic and have a successful career, as well as hopefully become a role model for others, encourage employers to see neurodiversity as a difference and as a strength, including in people-facing environments as well as just the tech sphere and how to support, encourage and develop others in the workplace.

It dismays me that only around 15% of autistic people in the UK are in full time employment and although this is now being highlighted with companies like Specialisterne working to place autistic people in the workplace, there seems to me to be an assumption that the skillset can only apply to technical kinds of jobs eg IT and that people are unable to be competent in people facing or leadership roles. Although this is my story, I hope there is something in there for other autistic people to use and for non autistic people to understand the potential.

For me there are 3 key elements — a framework of where the difference manifests and components to consider.

Mono processing and Monotropism

I believe this to be at the core of autism, I struggle to process more than one sensory channel at a time, focus attention on more than one thing at a time and do more than one thing at a time. Noisy environments are my nemesis, I cannot differentiate foreground and background noises and physical movement (e.g. walking) interferes with my ability to hold a conversation and think/process at the same time. I also focus so intensely at times, I don’t hear others and recognise my own needs for rest or breaks.

This can give rise to gaps in understanding what another person is thinking or feeling as I often do not process the full message at the time.

I have practical solutions for most situations in the workplace, most involve high concentration and focus in some way which can be exhausting but some challenges have been and are:

• Noise — socialising can be extremely difficult but work meetings are usually in quiet meeting rooms with few distractions enabling me usually to work well. I have struggled in the past when expected to work in a noisy open plan office.
• I avoid sitting near projectors and keyboards or electrical equipment that may give off humming noises that are unnoticeable for most but that I can’t filter out.
• Occasionally I can’t avoid this and have to conduct meetings in noisy environments eg restaurants, I have to concentrate especially hard and may need to ask people to repeat themselves. I can also be clumsy — in a recent meeting I knocked a gin and tonic over my boss! I’ve learned to go easy on myself in those situations.
• Dealing with understanding gaps — I am usually quite good with one way processing, so I can either present information or I can listen, but I may struggle with reciprocal to and fro conversations. This may mean I might interrupt a person if I get the timing wrong, or miss my turn to speak BUT I’ve learned if I have something worthwhile to contribute in my professional sphere, the right time will present itself and I will be able to make my point and a slight interruption will always be overlooked. I focus on my expertise and its importance rather than becoming anxious about the communication itself.
• Networking — can be noisy, I’ve learned open questioning as a technique when I trained as a Coach. People like to talk about themselves and by staying focused on them and interested, keeping to a topic of mutual interest and work related I have become extremely proficient.
• If trying to hold a conversation while walking, I might inadvertently walk into someone. I usually warn them in advance.

The greatest strategy of all in my work environment though is to be an expert in my field and understand the business requirements which leads me nicely to how I achieve this.

Systemising

I am a systemiser — on Simon Baron-Cohen’s (Cambridge University Autism Research Centre) Systemising Quotient test, which is often used as a screening tool for autism, I scored 98. 83 is typical for autism and 63 typical for a non autistic. As I am also female, this is very high, even by autistic standards. It is this skill that can drive expertise in technical type roles.

My greatest challenge is operating outside of a system, working with the unknown, this makes me anxious and anxiety can act as a stimulant. Being over-stimulated can be a challenge for many autistic people, the brain operates in over drive. I need meaning and purpose in my life, as this creates a system by which I can operate successfully. Examples might be:

• I like maps — even when operating with a Sat Nav, I like to look at a map, see where I am in relation to my destination and be able to ‘see’ where I am travelling
• When I fly, I like to see out of the window, see the ground or alternatively see an interactive map for the same reason — I can see where I am relative to my physical environment and this creates a ‘certainty’ whereas if I am travelling blind, I feel uneasy and not in control
• As a child, I would always take toys apart to find out how they worked and put them back together again
• Structures, rules and information that I can use to create a ‘prediction’ system allow me to minimise uncertainty and feel calm and in control

Autism is often characterised by routines, repetition, rituals and a need to control, plus an aversion to change. By establishing systems in my life I can embrace change, direct change and instigate change, whilst still feeling in control rather than ‘controlling’ which is often seen in autism.

I am also a visual/ pattern thinker and have high attention to detail. I detect easily when a pattern or system is broken. My inquisitive mind — wanting to know how everything works, allows me to come up with alternative solutions to ‘broken’ systems, usually quickly and easily provided information is available to do so.

One of my early work successes was during a period of critical change in the organisation I was working for; mass redundancies and closing of a production plant. I was given the task of understanding and documenting business processes carried out by several people who were leaving the company, streamline the processes and improve them usually using technology, retrain a new individual to take them on and provide ongoing support to them. I became expert in the business on the systems, but I also quickly worked out the nervousness/ fear of the person being asked to take on the new task (through observation of their behaviours and communications) so I worked on developing my own communication style to reassure and train effectively because it quickly became obvious this was needed if I was to be successful in my task. My ability to not let the emotions of the situation get in the way but work with all the variables, stay completely focused, yet being fair and patient to develop new personnel and always be there for support, ensured I achieved the required objective but without losing compassion along the way.

This situation paved the way for me for many years to come.

I also ran my own business for a while, as a freelance consultant. Each new role I would follow a particular structure:

• Understand my role, where did I sit in the organisation, what were the objectives, what was the strategy
• Gather data
  — People in the business and their roles, their objectives
  — Financial data — KPI’s, information required for decision making
  — Understand the data, understand the connecting variables, what impact would changing one variable have on another, sensitivity analysis
  — Understand the business model, the financial model
• Develop, devise or create a system/ model to represent the above — this most likely would either be diagrammatical (as I am visual) or would be a working financial model (usually required to perform my role)
• Use the model to predict the future

Until I reached the last stage, I often ran on nervous energy, anxiety and such intense drive until I could get to the final stages. The final stage allowed me to ‘see’ where I was, what was expected of me, how to fulfil my objectives and more importantly created the ‘system’ I required to feel calm and in control and truly deliver.

This can be a painstaking process but is invaluable to someone who fears the unknown and is often unable to instinctively read context. Using information from the environment to create a prediction system allows an autistic to work without needing to control their environment, but still feel in rather than out of control.

By building my own system, when variables inevitably change I can detect, be prepared and re calibrate quickly, so that it becomes barely noticeable to a non autistic person.

Daniel Pink — author of Whole New World described ‘right brain’ activity, associative thinking, pattern based thinking as synthesising rather than analysing and a key component of business acumen. Temple Grandin (autistic Professor of Animal Science and TED talker ‘The world needs all kinds of minds’) described the same phenomenon as a ‘Google Search Engine in your brain’. This is the ability to detect the impact of changing variables and is a different process from analysis which is linear and one dimensional. This can be trained and is a key core component of my approach to a systemised structured environment.

It allows quick decisions to be made and can be very accurate.

I always encourage anyone new coming into my team, to do the hard work and not shortcut this process. The understanding work is essential, study the variables, create the system and the outputs will drop out quickly and easily.

In my personal life I also use systems, noticing and observing how a person communicates and when that pattern changes, looking for the reasons that support this. However, whereas my professional identity and what is expected of me can be carved out using a process like this, meaning and purpose at a personal level can be elusive and my personal identity is less defined therefore I experience greater anxiety in social situations due to missing information. Also, people are often unpredictable and often do not follow logic, say one thing when they mean another and altogether from someone who struggles to read between the lines, can be perplexing to say the least. This will often render me struggling in ‘ordinary’ conversations, especially female conversations about ‘chit-chat’.

However, work conversations can be an entirely different thing. People have ‘roles’ in an organisation and that is something tangible to work with. I am a massive advocate of the late Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This is a system…..2 key habits allow me to overcome my autistic challenges

• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Synergise)
• Think ‘win-win’

Going back to when I join an organisation, I try to understand — What is your role? What is my role in relation to that? What are your objectives? How do my objectives align with yours? What is your strategy? What motivates you? How can I contribute to that?

I believe in ‘think win-win’, take the emotion out of decision making, understand the clear line of sight with respect to objectives , work together, take out silo working and take out personal interest.

Autistic people are designed to do this and this is the essence of good leadership….

Autistic leadership…Authentic leadership

and no this is not an oxymoron!

Authentic leadership is an approach to leadership that emphasises building the leader’s legitimacy through honest relationships with followers which value their input and are built on an ethical foundation. Generally authentic leaders are positive people with truthful self concepts who promote openness. Characteristics might look like:

Know yourself:

• Strengths, limitations and values
• What you stand for
• Trust and integrity
• Doing the right thing

Know others:

• No games
• Speak from the heart
• Understand fears and anxieties
• Lead by example

I can’t read through the lines in communication so I’ve learned I can’t play a politics game. Some people believe this is a game changer, to play one person off against another. I’ve learned it is not necessary to play political games, I believe in being honest and that integrity and belief in what is right for the business ultimately prevails.

As an autistic, one might assume that ‘negotiation’ is outside of my realm of expertise, but by thinking ‘Win/win’, being fair, using transparency and honesty and focused, creating a vision and being passionate about what is important, great outcomes can be achieved. I have achieved outcomes where others have failed using this approach.

The final ingredients to success, however have nothing to do with autism….

Confidence, self-belief and passion

I believe in my technical skills, I’ve done my homework, hard work in understanding the system, I know and understand my peers because I know what they need to achieve. I’ve learned to:

• stay honest, open and fair
• work towards a win/win
• challenge objectively when appropriate

but the real success comes from positive psychology and believing I can succeed.

As parents, teachers, employers, role models and mentors, it is important we understand this for our future generations. I believe a strategy is:

• not focus on negatives
• look for strengths and work with them
• instil confidence in strengths
• build a positive identity
• believe, truly believe and not pay lip service
• recognise the social ‘norm’ is only there because it is what neurotypical people have defined and it actually doesn’t have to be that way
• treat obsessions as passions and opportunities for growth
• see diversity as positive and stop trying to ‘normalise’
• take a different perspective

I was asked some time ago why it was so important to disclose my autism. It was about being real, authentic — openness and transparency is a part of who I am and despite the fear of rejection, ridicule and challenge on my ability this was of highest importance to lead by example for others.

In my personal identity, rather than professional I struggle with the ‘who’ I am and my meaning and purpose because they are impossible for me to define.

My fears are:

• the unknown
• being a nobody
• not being interesting enough
• why other people find it easy in social relationships and seem to have easy reciprocal relationships
• being misunderstood
• being unable to demonstrate my emotions effectively
• not being valuable, not adding value, being insignificant

However, I don’t fear vulnerability, being the person I really am. Fear has always acted as a driver and the more I face fears the less fearful things become…

I have good genes — my Dad as a boy, aged 12 and 14 had rheumatic fever, twice and was bedridden for over a year. He was told he would never walk again. My Dad lived for sport — he not only walked again, he ran for the county, played tennis and cricket and trialled for England schoolboys at 16 for football. He was given a junior place at Wolverhampton Wanderers and went on to play semi professional football for Chesterfield FC. He finally retired from football in his 40’s.

“Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.” Nelson Mandela

I believe in being the best person you can or want to be. Values and passions can be the driver. My story is my own unique story and is not intended to be everyone’s but all people, neurodiverse or otherwise have their own unique skillset. It is important as a society we understand this and nurture this in others.

As the record Rio Olympics have come to a close, I want to leave you with one of the most inspirational videos I have seen this year.

I can

Good luck to our Paralympians in Rio…..

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